About Our Branch

The 9,800 square-foot Southside Library is located on
a beautiful wooded site at 3185 Buchanan Street in Winston-Salem, NC. The Library
serves the southeast section of the city, surrounded by suburbs, a high school,
and shopping.

The branch offers a full range of library services to the community with special
emphasis on lifelong learning, English as a Second Language (ESL), bilingual programming,
and support for students and children’s services. Several unique features include
a reading nook with a bay window, an outdoor patio, and a wooded three-acre lot.

Over 108,000 visits were paid to the facility last year. A significant number of
registered borrowers live in nearby Davidson County. The Library serves a growing
Hispanic population.

Decca Riedel Slaughter is the branch manager.

Branch History

The original Southside Branch Public Library opened for business on February 23,
1971. It was located at the corner of Konnoak Drive and Corporation Parkway on a
tract that served in the 1920s and 1930s as the Holton Amusement Park. The architects
for the project, Aubrey Kirby Associates, designed a slope-roofed structure of 4,151
square feet. Southside residents had waited a long time for a library in their neighborhood
and had expressed a desire for the building to be as attractive as possible. Of
the two building plans proposed, the more expensive design, featuring a better grade
of materials, was selected.

When it opened, the original Southside Library became the seventh library location
for Forsyth County. It was headed by Mary Anna Howard, formerly head of the Library’s
Extension Division. Following Howard, Emily Williams served as the branch manager
for many years and guided the transition to a new building.

In the mid-1980s, the original building was torn down by the N.C. Department of
Transportation to make way for the new Interstate 40 bypass around Winston-Salem.

The current Southside Branch Library building opened on July 9, 1986. It is named
for the late Fred D. Hauser, who was a Forsyth County Commissioner. The new building
was designed by the Winston-Salem architectural firm of Calloway, Johnson, & Moore
and built at a cost of $795,000.

Other branch managers through subsequent years include Lois Leggett, Elizabeth Skinner,
Carolyn Price and Joel White.